THE WIRE'S BEST OF 2015
Ruff Kutz
Rawest, illest hip hop/dub mixtape from '98 by Wordsound capo, Skiz Fernando Jr a.k.a. Spectre, feat contributions from sometime Madteo collaborator Sensational, Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin’s Techno Animal alias, Bill Laswell’s Dubadelic project, Godflesh’s Ted Parsons and more. This is a fine history lesson for many yungers, and a red-eyed flashback for many heads who came thru in the '90s. Originally released on cassette in edition of only 100 copies, it documents late night sessions recorded…
No Fans Compendium
Restocked! The unplaceable, implacable Richard Youngs presents a personal selection of five CDs taken from his long-running private press imprint, No Fans, plus 2 discs of previously unreleased and very covetable early material. An enigma to most, us included, Youngs' output over the years stretches as far as the ear can see, from tangled modular pop craft to noisy psychedelia and cranky folk, earning him a considerable cult fanbase in the process. These CDs include some of his rarest mate…
Elitism For The People 1975-1978
The target audience for Elitism For The People, Pere Ubu’s vinyl archival boxed set of studio and live work from 1975-1978, is exceedingly focused, so let’s assess the set on those terms: If you’re the sort of fidelity geek who squealed when the “Coppola Restoration” of The Godfather allowed you to actually see the blood mist bloom behind Sollozzo’s head when Michael Corleone clipped him in the restaurant, welcome home. Elitism’s four discs of 180-gram vinyl—comprising studio albums The Modern D…
Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul - Yanomami Shamanism, Songs
Recordings from 1978 by David Toop of Yanomami ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies, and rainforest sounds. The voices of spirits and animal familiars, ventriloquial illusions of sound in dark spaces, secret spirit languages, the clap of thunder that links shamanic trance with the sleep language of Finnegans Wake... Out of these passages of the everyday, intensity flares like flames caught by a gust of wind. Skin burns or oozes blood, the wind blows up havoc as the spirits move about. Bot…
Grm works
Restocked. Argentine electroacoustic composer Beatriz Ferreyra describes each of the pieces included on GRM Works: Demeures aquatiques (1967): "This electroacoustic piece, articulated into two clearly distinct parts, draws its sound source from the classical and unorthodox instruments -- metal sheets, glass rods, etc. -- invented by the Baschet brothers. I wanted to show the contrast between the rhythmic repetition of a sounding object, which gives out a feeling of fixity, an electroacoustic…
Complete Works
*last copies restocked, sold out at source* Krautrock ‘supergroup’ Harmonia has their complete works reissued as mindblowing 5LP vinyl box set. The band were formed of Michael Rother of Neu! and Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Möbius of Cluster, with Brian Eno joining for sessions in 1976. Of the three studio albums Musik von Harmonia (1974) and Deluxe (1975) were issued in the original era. The third album Tracks and Traces from the ’76 sessions wasn’t released until 1997 under the Harmonia ’…
Divers
The dreamer dreams again with her 4th album of otherworldly microcosms, 'Divers', recorded by Steve Albini and featuring contributions by Nico Muhly and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, arriving five years since her last opus for Drag City. Still possessed by a voice that teeters between sublime and ridiculous (I honestly laughed out loud at the first song), Joanna Newsom remains a precious spirit within the indie folk paradigm, blessed with an air of stately patience and poised, imma…
Magnetoception
Restocked!! On Magnetoception, Joshua Abrams is back exploring new contexts for the guimbri, the three-stringed north African bass lute at the heart of his Eremite recordings Natural Information (2010) and Represencing (2012). The artist's first large-scale work on vinyl, Magnetoception began as a commission by Eremite for Abrams to make a double LP based in extended performances by an ensemble of Abrams, guitarists Emmett Kelly and Jeff Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake. The group recorded the…
For Those Who Are, Still
An astonishing 3CD box set of new and previously unissued long-form works from world-renowned composer-bassist William Parker. This box set is comprised of four distinctly compelling long-form works -- Parker's first composition written for symphony orchestra performance; a commissioned piece for a standing new music ensemble; a 'chamber-jazz' song series for voice / soprano sax / piano / bass; a composition created specifically for a particularly diverse Parker assemblage in Universal To…
Safe
140-gram LP version. Having partnered with Bill Kouligas in 2015 to relaunch his Lost Codes imprint as Codes, Visionist takes a defining step forward with the release of his debut album, Safe. The South London artist born Louis Carnell broke during a period of experimentation in UK music when, with the disintegration of the dubstep scene, emerging producers began looking to juke and Chicago house for inspiration. A pair of EPs on Lit City Trax (and a collaboration with Fatima Al Qadiri) in 20…
Lost Shadows: In Defence of the Soul - Yanomami Shamanism, 1978
Mixed by Lawrence English. Recordings from 1978 by David Toop of Yanomami ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies, and rainforest sounds. The voices of spirits and animal familiars, ventriloquial illusions of sound in dark spaces, secret spirit languages, the clap of thunder that links shamanic trance with the sleep language of Finnegans Wake... Out of these passages of the everyday, intensity flares like flames caught by a gust of wind. Skin burns or oozes blood, the wind blows up havoc as t…
The Long String Instrument
Milestone reissue! Ellen Fullman began developing her installation The Long String Instrument in 1981, in search of tonalities that could not be achieved with traditional instruments. This large-scale work consisted of 70-foot-long metallic wires, anchored by a wooden resonator, across which the performer moves backwards and forwards with rosin-covered fingers. The overall effect has been rightfully compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano.Recorded during Fullman's 1…
Olympic Mess
Double LP version. Pressed on 140-gram vinyl. Olympic Mess is Luke Younger's third outing for the ever-stunning PAN imprint, tailing closely behind last year's The Hollow Organ EP and the stupefying Impossible Symmetry album from the year before that. Where his previous effort, 2014's The Hollow Organ (PAN 050EP), dealt in dense, distressed sonics, Olympic Mess is Younger responding to a period spent engaged with loop-based industrial music, dub techno, and balearic disco. These musical refere…
Monoceros
Milestone reissue! Evan Parker's monolithic 1978 solo record Monoceros was originally released on Incus in 1978, and distinguishes itself in several respects: first, because it was recorded by the direct-cut process, whereby the sound pathway went directly from the microphone to a vinyl master. By virtue of eliminating the tape intermediate, the hope was to reduce noise and limit the need for processing and filters. The important functional consequence of this technology was that the musician (…